COKER UNIVERSITY
STRATEGIC PLAN
2021-2025
For more than a century, Coker University has transformed lives for many generations. In May of 2021, Coker University formally launched its new strategic plan to ensure that it continues to educate, innovate, and prepare future generations for the opportunities ahead.
With this strategic plan as its guide, Coker University is focused on its future, prioritizing those actions and investments that are most relevant and accessible for students, while providing Coker alumni with even stronger paths to success. Coker is committed to meeting the changing needs of its students and community.
STUDENT SUCCESS
Ensure our students have every opportunity to gain employment in high-need and forward-thinking industries by building on the liberal arts foundation of Coker.
- Be distinct in the way students engage in full academic, social, and emotional learning experiences building on a contemporary liberal arts education model.
- Clearly connect students to the workforce by preparing students with a robust skill set and aligning to market needs.
- Be responsive and agile by offering alternative educational models to meet market and industry demands.
- Positively shape students’ personal and professional lives beyond college through learning opportunities that broaden students’ perspectives for problem-solving and curiosity for continued learning and build intentional relationships between students, faculty, mentors, and the community.
- Integrate collaborative learning opportunities for all students that extend beyond a traditional classroom experience.
WORK ENVIRONMENT & CULTURE
Hire, develop, and support Coker employees to continuously grow and develop to meet professional industry demands and to do so with agility and creativity.
- Intentionally cultivate a work environment where employees are engaged and empowered to lead the way for achieving Coker Excellence.
- Build and grow the employee experience.
- Foster an equitable work environment and recruit, develop, recognize, and retain employees by focusing on the diversity of people, experiences, and thought.
- Extend the Coker cultural experience to be inclusive of all stakeholders including students, employees, alumni, communities, and university partners.
VIBRANT COMMUNITIES
Collaborate, engage, and lead the way to advance our communities to be great places to live, work, and learn.
- Proactively strengthen university and community relationships to create a community that has a lively downtown where citizens want to work, live, learn, shop, and play.
- Launch a community space for open learning, public impact, and creativity.
- Be the leader for collaboratively building a blueprint for citizen-powered change in the community.
- Attract investments to bring good jobs to the community that benefit students in college and beyond.
FINANCIAL HEALTH
Design a contemporary business model to invest and reinvest in innovative and creative learning experiences that create prosperous learning experiences.
- Demonstrate a return on dollars invested in students by creating an affordable, high value education.
- Be vigilant, agile and flexible to grow funding sources and alternative revenue streams that advance and modernize an academic, emotional and social learning place.
- Grow the Coker Endowment and revenue streams through capital investments, public/private partnerships, and extensive opportunities for innovation and outreach.
- Transform and deploy an operating and service model to build efficiencies and accelerate returns of investments.
